Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadow

When I started my rear cutting garden in the Fall of 2010, gladiolus bulbs were among the first items planted. Since then, they’ve been encircled by a Ludwigia Peruviana shrub that volunteered nearby. In Spring, they bloom simultaneously and look so pretty, I haven’t had the heart to separate them!

But something was definitely “off” this year:…the glads were almost 2 months late in showing buds, and when they arrived in July, they brought “friends” along: not a good foreshadowing!

This little weevil is Myllocerus undatus, a native of southern India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan that arrived in South Florida in 2000. It feeds on more than 138 plant species, and seemed especially fond of my gladioli and nearby passiflora vines. Adults cause
excessive leaf damage, but worse, the larva feed on the plants’ roots for 1-2 months:

With weevils munching on the developing leaf sheaths (from where the flower stalks emerge,) this glad never stood a chance. 😦 Here it is a month later, bent and ready to be cut back without benefit of reaching the flowering stage:

Yes…it was all foreshadowed…

For more about Myllocerus undatus, check out the University of Florida Info Sheet.

For other interpretations of this week’s challenge, click on the Zemanta related links below!

Until next time….

🙂 🙂 🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadow (amarnaik.wordpress.com)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadow (yobynos.wordpress.com)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadow (trishadm.wordpress.com)
Weekly Photo Challenge: FORESHADOW (opallaontrails.wordpress.com)
Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadow (Storm in the Rockies) (skpfoto.com)

9 thoughts on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Foreshadow”

Thanks for giving my post a link! What a surprising and yet foreshadowing account you have to fit the theme…creative choice.

SmallHouseBigGarden says:

August 4, 2013 at 7:40 am

you’re quite welcome!
Some of these challenges aren’t exactly easy, are they!?
thanks for taking the time to come by and comment!

Great pictures!

I think I might prefer not toknow it was going to happen!

At the heart of a real pest control is about knowing your enemy and organize the garden so it is as hostile as possible to them; I really appreciated the information and the link.

It’s always disappointing when a pest gets to the plants. Right now, we’re sharing our ripening tomatoes with some sort of critter(s). Some battles, we just can’t win!

It seems like the weather, disease, and the pests are definitely not working ‘with’ the gardener this year no matter what part of the country you live in.